When the PS3 version of Armored Core 5 surfaced in Japan earlier this year, it instantly beat Resident Evil: Revelations to the top of the charts - and even gave the 360 a rare top 10 showing at number six. But despite coming from the same studio that brought us the spectacular Dark Souls, the arrival of a new Armored Core game on our shores will, for the most part, be met with the same enthusiasm as a five pound book token.

However, for those who played the original Armored Core demo and subsequently bought all seven PlayStation 2 games after getting hooked on the thrill of mecha engineering, the release of the 14th instalment raises a couple of questions. One: is it still possible to steamroller through the single-player missions with a tank-spec AC festooned with Gatling guns and grenade launchers? Two: has From Software finally ditched the update mentality by releasing a sequel that shows substantial progression? That's an unequivocal yes on the first count, and a more tentative nod on the second.

Although story has always taken a back seat, Armored Core 5 sticks to the dystopian future setting where mankind has rendered much of the world uninhabitable. Instead of depicting competing companies who hire your piloting skills to outdo each other in underhanded corporate warfare, the game casts you as a member of a Resistance group that's trying to take down the tyrannical "Corporation" and its oppressive army of sinister machines. It's a mechanical story, devoid of human emotion.